This gadget does exactly as promised: it looks like a thumbdrive (sort of) and fries the circuitry of any computer it’s plugged into. It’s made from camera flash parts, is charged with a standard AA battery, and delivers a 300V zap of DC destruction to the port for all your USB-murdering needs. Note that this […]

The Cobham catalog, exposed by The Intercept, features countless pages of surveillance gadgets sold to U.S. police to spy on American citizens: tiny black boxes with a big interest in you. In the creepily bland feature lists and nerdy product names is a whisper of a dark future; perhaps darker than anyone can imagine.

This image depicts the most commonly-found stylesheet colors on the web’s top sites—Paul Hebert did an amazing amount of analysis and this is just one of the intriguing visualizations he came up with. Most of these are obvious staples, especially HTML red and blue, though it’s interesting how far the blue “cluster” is from the […]

The Boing Boing Store’s Gift Guide is full of ideas for pretty much anyone in your life like hipster ice cub trays, Xbox controllers, Halo Boards, and even diamond necklaces. As always, all products in the Boing Boing Store come at great discounts, too. Shop by price bucket starting at under $20. Under $20:Bloxx Jumbo Ice Trays […]

Unlike traditional lighters, the SaberLight features an electronic plasma beam that’s both rechargeable and butane-free. This sleek lighter is even approved by TSA, so you’ll never be stuck buying lighters you’ll just have to throw away partially used. For some people, like me, this is a pretty big game-changer. The SaberLight’s beam is actually both hotter and cleaner […]

Holiday shopping is in full swing, and the Striiv Touch is one of the best gift ideas I’ve landed on. Its simple design works for females and males, and its wide range of features makes it suitable for even the non-fitness enthusiasts in your life.Unlike traditional fitness trackers, the Striiv Touch also acts as a smartwatch. It […]

In 2004, the Times of India wrote an article [1] quoting a Slashdot troll as truth:

Says a programmer on Slashdot.org who outsourced his job: “About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 out of the $67,000 I get. He’s happy to have the work. I’m happy that I have to work only 90 minutes a day just supervising the code. My employer thinks I’m telecommuting. Now I’m considering getting a second job and doing the same thing.”

Last month with their permission, zefrank took over someone’s Facebook account for a week and pretended to be them. An interesting experiment in online identity. Here’s a description and a write up of the experience:

Zoomdoggle, with its emphasis on lowbrow humour and puerile pranks, looks like one of the few blogs that could get away with that sort of thing. If they taught monkeys to type and edit HTML, they could probably put a few to work writing for it.

This is essentially the same idea as “Outsourcing,” the second episode of Click & Clack’s As the Wrench Turns, which is unfortunately pretty bad. Not that it was a very original idea when they did it, but Zoomdoggle’s idea is similar enough that it came to mind immediately.

Yogesh is not “hot” or “kind of hot”. He is classically handsome. He has a beautiful skull and facial bone structure and on top of them gorgeous eyes, ears, nose, mouth, chin, and cheeks. His hair is luxurious and his 5 o’clock shadow is sexy. He is one gorgeous hunk of man.

Outsourcing to India does not necessarily mean lower quality. The are hundreds of thousands of Indians who write better than any of us, in perfect written English. Well, … better than any of you. I’m not a native English speaker.

Countless blogs will actually improve, if outsourced to them. Unfortunately, there are also millions of somewhat less skilled Indians in the outsourcing business. As in any hiring situation, the trick is in finding and retaining the right person.

What is needed is an outsourcing company that will honestly rate the people they have. You pay more for a grade-1 person, less for grade-5. The Tasks Everyday company Jake uses does not do this. They only charge extra for people with technical degrees, but that is all.

It’s like hiring an employee, entirely on their paper qualification alone, without an interview, or even a resume. And then having their salaries locked permanently into that paper qualification, without allowing for anything else – their performance over time, people skills, efficiency, initiative, etc.

The are hundreds of thousands of Indians who write better than any of us, in perfect written English.

Educated Indians are a lot more educated than educated Americans. One of the families that I visited had a sixth grader who was way ahead of most American college students. And I don’t mean in drinking and posting faceplants on YouTube.

I’ve used several firms over the past year and a half. I liked some, didn’t like others. I’m using an individual now and it’s great. What really helped was a program I found at http://www.cloningyourself.com

It was really helpful, not just with finding and using virtual help, but with my delegating. Some of my assistants weren’t great, but sometimes it was me.

I’d love to see a more current post if there is one. What’s the update. Is it still going well?